This invention relates to an apparatus and/or a system or method of harvesting energy. In particular, the present invention collects electromagnetic energy that exists in the ambient environment or that is intentionally directed to an energy harvesting device and stores said energy for later use.
Electromagnetic energy exists in all sorts of forms. It is generally used to transmit information, but also exists, albeit typically small, as a source of energy which may be collected and stored.
Generally, systems that collect electromagnetic energy, such as antennas for example, are only designed to capture the information that is being transmitted through the electromagnetic medium and generally do not capture a substantial portion of the energy itself. Information-carrying signals, once received by the antenna, can then be amplified by the receiver and filtered to obtain the information. As such, the focus of such systems is on the information and the particular wavelength on which the information is transmitted, rather than the actual energy itself.
Presently, at the same time that the amount of energy electronic apparatus use is decreasing, the amount of electromagnetic energy being transmitted is increasing. Further, more and more electronics operate autonomously—either passively, by sensing or collecting information, or actively, by performing a function.